


Set Sail

by inkbert



Series: we'll get there fast, and then we'll take it slow [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Humor, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Sailing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-07-22 01:11:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7412611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkbert/pseuds/inkbert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 'Casa' one-shot.</p><p>Wanda sails. Clint keeps secrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Set Sail

Wanda wakes to the gentle rocking of the boat, tangled in soft bed sheets, with Lucky’s body leaning heavily against hers. It’s cute until he flops his head back, grins a doggy grin, and huffs his terrible breath directly into her face.

“Ugh. Lucky. Down.” Wanda kicks free of the covers as the dog lets gravity do most of the work of getting down. As always he plods directly to his food bowl, and as always, Wanda points towards the door. Today, the door is the narrow stairs that lead up to the deck of her boat. They're on the final day of the 38th annual Providence 3-day Solo Sail.

He manages to look put out as she follows him up the stairs and to the swim deck Steve and Pietro had helped secure to the back of the boat. His leap into the water has no grace, and he doesn’t look back as he swims steadily to shore to take care of his morning business.

Wanda tosses a couple towels down, then hurries back below deck to make a pot of coffee. The boat is known to her now, comfortable. She can find her way with her eyes closed, around its cramped quarters. She has passed many hours on it, first repairing it and making it her own, and then sailing it with Clint or Bucky. But mostly Clint.

Pietro refuses to set foot on her boat unless they’re having a party and Darcy comes.

She’s just starting to pour the white macadamia creamer that Jane got her hooked on when she hears Lucky’s nails clacking against the deck and she has to dart up the stairs to stop him from making a mess.

“Lucky! Sit!”

He gives her this look. This look like he’s thinking about not sitting, and instead scrambling all over the deck while she chases him with a towel and he leaves muddy paw prints everywhere. Wanda puts her hands on her hips.

His butt plops onto the deck and his tail thumps. She can’t help loving him, since she knows Clint would have been chasing him guaranteed. Clint actually thought Lucky was deaf until Wanda met him, it was part of the reason Clint hadn’t been able to leave him behind.

“Good boy.” Wanda slings a towel around Clint’s dog, the dog no one else at the tower knows about. There have been a few close calls, like when Lucky crashed three picnics at the park and ate fourteen hotdogs, half a watermelon, and a bottle of hot sauce (bottle included), then threw up on the residential floors elevator while Clint carried him home. Wanda had hurried Lucky down the hall, and Clint had ended up taking the blame for the truly disgusting pile of vomit.

And almost any time Steve leaves his shield in the common areas, because Lucky likes to sleep curled in it and seems to have a sixth sense for it.

And the time Darcy almost caught Clint with him on the sidewalk out front, and Clint had hidden up in the awning of the bagel shop, and Darcy had tried to adopt ‘the stray’. Clint had texted Wanda, and she’d come down to distract Darcy while Clint made off with Lucky. Who now also seems to have a sixth sense for where Darcy is and can often be found stalking her, leaving clouds of condensation from his breath and nose smears on the glass lab doors.

When Natasha gets back from consulting with Director Coulson at an undisclosed classified location (Stanley, North Dakota) on security it’s all going to be over.

“There.” Wanda tosses the damp towels aside. “Now you can have breakfast.”

And his eyes light up, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth, as he looks up at her with adoration. Lucky is a simple creature – he likes food (and Steve’s shield). Wanda feels she might be especially susceptible to his affection, never having been able to have a dog before. It would not have been even the faintest of options growing up. Another mouth to feed, another body to shield.

He eats his breakfast all the while watching Wanda cook her own at the small two burner stove with a careful eye. Lucky is nothing like the dogs Wanda has seen on the television. He does not chase Frisbees or want to play with toys. He moves mostly in slumps, often with lots of grumbling. Except for when food drops to the floor, or is left unattended. Despite often having trouble hauling his back end up onto the couch, he once got the cupcakes Wanda special ordered for Darcy’s birthday off of the top of the refrigerator. (Clint took the blame for that, too.)

He sits on her foot while she eats, and nearly trips her in his enthusiasm when she scrapes the leftover egg from the pan into his bowl. She’d read that was good for his coat. She’d read almost anything she could get her hands on about dogs, when Clint had brought Lucky to the tower. She’d also downloaded the Dog of the Day app, and has DogMom to track his weight and his vet visits. Clint had called her adorable about the Dog of the Day thing, so she’s made sure he doesn’t know about DogMom. But how else will they keep track of his heart worm medication and flea and tick treatments and his teeth cleanings?

In the narrow and compact lower deck she has to twist and stretch, ducking under the two hanging plants, to manage to reach her phone. It’s on silent, she needs her sleep if she’s going to complete this last leg of the three day voyage on time. Her first extended solo sail.

Clint had sent her a picture of the blue chair near his bedroom window. It’s where she likes to sit and read. It makes her smile, because he’s also sent her a picture of the empty space on the left side of his bed, and her empty spot with her favorite fuzzy blanket on his couch. He readily admits that he often says the wrong thing, and despite trying, isn’t the type to come up with fancy words. Wanda has found that she likes his ways of talking without words.

She also has a picture of Darcy and Jane, wrapped in heavy down parkas, goggles over their eyes, and scarves around their faces on a snowy mountain. It’s part of a group text that is always out of control.

 **Darcy** : _Us on the tundra. Or is it? You’ll never know. PS, fuck you Clint, Alaska isn’t always cold my frozen ass._

Wanda laughs and clicks over to a private message with Clint.

 **Wanda** : _Better think of something to welcome Darcy and Jane back with._

 **Clint** : _It’s a weather anomaly! How was I supposed to know they’d have a cold snap that shatters records all the way back to 1927?_

Before she can type a response, two more messages come through.

 **Clint** : _Have you seen my lucky socks? I think Sam stole them._

 **Clint** : _Also, good morning. Miss you._

Wanda leans back against the counter, next to her last cup of coffee, and enjoys the quiet thrill and soft warmth unfurling in her chest.

 **Wanda** : _Lucky ate your socks. Don’t ask how I learned that, on day one. I suggest a week of delivering coffee from that shop they both like for Darcy and Jane, you know Jane holds grudges. When are they back again?_

 **Clint** : _You’re right, Tony’s still getting shocked every time he uses the coffee pot. He can’t figure out how Jane did it. Sorry about the socks, babe. Next week._

 **Wanda** : _Hmmm. You might send them a care box with some extra blankets and hot cocoa then. You can get one of the pre-made jars from my place. Oh, and I miss you too. But I’ve got to go if I’m gonna make the finish line in time._

 **Clint** : _You = the best. Now get to work, I’ll be seeing you in eight-ish hours._

Lucky goes directly to his after-breakfast-nap place, where he’ll remain curled for a few hours, until he’s ready for a swim. Then he’ll nap on the bow for a while, belly up.

On the horizon she can just see two sails, one orange and one white. The boats belong to two twelve year old girls, also on their first solo sails. They’d anchored near Wanda the first night, and had swam over for a hot breakfast when the smell of bacon proved more tempting than the cereal they’d packed.

In repayment, they’d given her advice about the rest of the voyage. They’d both sailed it more than once with their parents in preparation for doing the solo sail. She’d promised them autographs at the finish line, and they’d left happy.

She doesn’t check her phone again until she breaks for lunch. Lucky is splashing around in his life vest, and she’s sitting on the bow eating a chicken salad sandwich. Bruce had packed her lunches for every afternoon, with labels for which days to eat them.

When she goes to text Clint to tell him she found one of his hearing aids in the dish she puts her rings in while she does the dishes, she sees that she’s missed a call from both Pepper and Thor. Wanting to save her ears, she calls Pepper back first.

“Hi, Wanda, sorry to bother you.” Pepper answers after only one ring. “I’ll be quick, did you take the dog with you?”

“The dog?” Wanda winces, looking towards the shore. Lucky is now pretending not to watch the ducks and inching closer to them in a way he thinks is sneaky. It is not.

“Lucky. Tony hasn’t seen him for three days, and he hasn’t eaten the cookies I set out for him.” There’s a shrill ring on the other end of the phone line, then the sound of a door shutting. “Sorry about that. Anyway, Tony and Sam have been out with Redwing looking for him at that park Thor takes him to, and Steve and Bucky went to try to find Clint to see what he knows.”

Peppers sighs. “Also, Tony broke into Clint’s apartment, and the door is going to take at least a week to fix.”

“Lucky is with me.” Wanda says around a smile.

“Oh, thank god. I was really worried about him. He only has the one eye. Bruce told me animals adapt, but I – Deborah, Chris, call the security team. We found him.” Pepper huffs out a quiet, relieved breath. “So he’s fine. Does he like the water? Oh, I should let you go. I know how important this is to you.”

“He loves the water. Would you like me to send you a couple pictures?” Wanda offers tentatively.

“That would not be something that would upset me.” Pepper responds.

Wanda sends her a picture of Lucky trying to make friends with the ducks, one of him from yesterday, covered in mud, and another of him asleep with his nose shoved under the unicorn pillow Darcy had given Clint.

Then she sends a picture of him leaping off of the swim deck in his life vest, not majestically, to the group chat.

A second later a text comes from Clint on their private chat.

 **Clint** : _What???????????_

 **Wanda** : _Everyone already knows. Pepper gives him cookies, Thor takes him on walks to a park._

 **Clint** : _What._

Wanda would be slightly embarrassed a few hours later, when she docks _Ananas_ and comes ashore to find that she’s the only person with more than three people waiting to celebrate with her. Because everyone came, and she side-eyes Clint for lying about when Jane and Darcy were coming back. And Natasha. Natasha came from North Dakota in the middle of an assignment. 

But it’s really nice, and Lucky acts like it’s the best day ever racing from one person to the next, and she’s not sure she’s ever gotten so many hugs in a year much less in a single day.

So yes. She is definitely the only adult with someone tossing them up in the air and loudly proclaiming ‘you did it’, but Thor is broadcasting so much pride and happiness and how impressed he is that no, she doesn’t feel the least embarrassed.

Plus her two friends from yesterday’s breakfast get a lot more autographs than they’d expected.


End file.
